


We Can Make It If We Run

by handyhunter



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-01
Updated: 2010-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-09 20:43:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handyhunter/pseuds/handyhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko and Sokka, ridiculous bonding antics. Post-series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Can Make It If We Run

Sokka poked his head out the door and very carefully looked left, right, up and down. The coast was clear. He tiptoed out into the hallway and then gave the signal. Momo followed him out. Sokka waited a moment and when no one else appeared, he stuck his head back inside his room and hissed, "Zuko!"

"_That_ was the signal? I thought _this_ was the signal." Zuko made some strange and confusing gesture with his arms.

"No! _Momo_ understood the signal." Sokka demonstrated it again, waving his arms and fingers in a completely different way than what Zuko had done.

Zuko frowned. "I think you're doing it backwards."

"How can it be backwards? It's supposed to be symmetric!" Sokka tried it with his left arm first, then his right. "See? It's exactly the same."

"I don't think so." Zuko was shaking his head. "That clearly meant, 'Go left, then take the second right,' not 'three paces behind you is a secretary with seventeen scrolls'."

"What?"

"Fire Lord," a woman intoned in a very serious voice.

Sokka yelped and spun around, one hand reaching for his boomerang that he no longer had. He lowered his arm awkwardly and hoped he wasn't blushing. A trained warrior should have better senses than to allow someone to sneak up on him.

"I told you there was someone behind you," said Zuko.

The secretary was plainly Earth Kingdom, with her green and gold robes, which didn't even wrinkle as she bowed to Zuko. She was just one of many people lined up to conduct official business with the new Fire Lord. She held out a brush and an ink pot and a tablet to write on. Zuko sighed.

Sokka grabbed Zuko's sleeve and leaned in to whisper, "You know, it's not too late to make a run for it."

Zuko regarded Sokka for a long moment and then sighed again. "I can't."

"Taking one day off isn't going to hurt you," said Sokka, but what he really meant was, "You're no fun," which he also said out loud because sometimes he just couldn't help himself.

Zuko looked surprised at that. "I've never been any fun. At least now I have an excuse."

"That is the worst reason I've ever heard for anyone to want to be king." Sokka walked away, still talking. "Fine. I'll just go to the grand opening of the third ever Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop alone." Or, with the rest of the gang, who were waiting outside with Appa, ready to leave, but Zuko didn't need to know that. Sokka talked a little louder and walked a little slower. "I'm sure Iroh won't feel too bad that his only nephew wasn't able to attend. . . Or that he's lost his skills at evasive manoeuvres because he can't remember simple hand signals. . ."

"Fine! I'll go!" Zuko caught up to Sokka in a few steps, and Sokka half-turned to send a jaunty wave to the startled secretary. Then he grabbed Zuko and shoved him out the large first-storey window overlooking the duck pond. They landed in a heap at Toph's bare feet.

She scowled at them. "Took you long enough. Next time you be the lookout!"

"It was Zuko's fault," apologized Sokka. He waved Appa over - see? _he_ understood Sokka's silent communications - and they all went to celebrate another opening of one of Iroh's tea shops, including Zuko, who managed to have a good time despite himself.


End file.
